1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a circuit board design system, a design data analysis method, and an analysis program equipped with the capability to analyze design data for circuits built on circuit boards, such as printed circuit boards, semiconductor integrated circuits, etc.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, printed circuit board design often has been done with the help of computer-based printed circuit board CAD (Computer Aided Design). Despite the high degree of automation in CAD device-based printed circuit board design, there still are quite a few things that cannot be properly designed if the designer is unskilled. Therefore, a number of technologies have been proposed that permit proper design even by users who are not skilled designers.
A printed circuit board CAD device described in JP H10-214281A comprises parameter derivation means for deriving unknown design parameters from known design parameters using design parameter-related rules. Thus, even users who are not skilled designers can operate it simply by inputting known design parameters. As a result, it is possible to get rid of operations performed by skilled designers to determine the design parameters of wiring (foil width, termination resistance values, etc.) based on their own long experience and on analysis results when designing, for instance, high-speed clock signal lines that require impedance matching, etc.
Moreover, an automatic interference checking system, which checks for contact between components using component models with defined boundaries in a computer-aided design system, has been disclosed in JP H5-20403A. The above-mentioned automatic interference checking system makes use of component models with defined boundaries to ensure control aimed at preventing components from entering into contact with one another and displays them on a monitor. As a result, it becomes possible to omit an operation related to component overlap checking (interference checking) in three dimensional computer models, which normally require careful observation on the part of the user.
In addition, JP 2001-202396A disclosed a printed circuit board CAD device that displays, in easily identifiable visual form, the results of checks that determined whether the height of components mounted to a printed circuit board satisfied height restrictions. With such a printed circuit board CAD device, it was easy for the user to perform visual component height checks during printed circuit board design.
As described above, the printed circuit board CAD device provides support for setting up the design parameters of wiring, as well as support for contact checks in three-dimensional models, etc. However, components placed in a mutually spaced relationship may interfere with one another electromagnetically. The reality is that the presence of such electromagnetic interaction between components is the reason why design patterns are still subject to visual checks based on the know-how of skilled designers. Therefore, the availability of skilled designers has been indispensable for design that accounts for electromagnetic interaction between components.